The Long Beach Dub Allstars are back in action, though sans former Sublime members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson. After an extended hiatus, the LBDA crew headed up by Sublime-affiliates Marshall Goodman and Michael Happoldt, will commence their live dub-rockin' sty-lee Sunday night at the Yost Theater, opening up for Fishbone.
It comes as somewhat of a surprise considering how long LBDA has been defunct (10 years already, wow); but nonetheless, it's nice to see the extended Sublime family back in action working with each other. We caught up with “Field” Marshall Goodman, aka Ras MG of “Doin' Time” fame, to talk about LBDA's plans for this weekend and the near future–which includes more local shows and possibly an album release. Check out our interview after the jump.
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OC Weekly (Adam Lovinus): You guys are opening up for Fishbone Saturday. Are you guys pals from back in the day?
Marshall Goodman: Our good friend and former manager of Long Beach Dub Allstars–Jon Phillips of Silverback Artist Management–is managing Fishbone and asked LBDA if we'd like to have an opening spot with the band at the Yost Theater and we jumped on the offer. We have all been fans of Fishbone for quite some time, and have had the pleasure of meeting and jamming with members of the band over the years.
What provoked you guys to get LBDA back together?
Jack [Maness], Michael [Happoldt], and myself tossed the idea around for a little bit last year. We all were ready to play some familiar songs with familiar guys, and decided to reach out to Opie [Ortiz] and Tim [Wu]. When they were interested, we brought Ed Kampwirth into the mix–another long-time friend from a local 1990's Long Beach band Suburban Rhythm–and we played a small “family gig” in Long Beach at a friend's bar named Ashley's. We had a blast doing the gig, so we talked about committing some time to develop a unit that could give us old friends a platform to write some songs and play some shows in a comfortable, stress-free environment. We see the band as a group of guys on a fishing trip enjoying the scenery, each others company, trading stories about the past, and sharing our views for the future. This trip is an opportunity to bond with old friends and play some enjoyable music.
So what's the new material shaping up like? Do you guys do any old Sublime tunes?
We have a good amount of new songs. Jack wrote quite a bit over the years and we'll be playing some of his material. Ed has written some songs as well and we are continually adding to our arsenal of new material weekly. The set for The Yost Theater show will contain some oldies-but-goodies and a good dose of new material as well. You'll have to come to the show to see which Sublime and Long Beach Dub Allstars songs we bring out!
So what are your plans for releasing a new record?
How we are going to present this new material is still being discussed. The age-old business model for releasing albums has completely shifted over the last two decades and we want to be sure we use the best platforms available to share what we've come up with. We may need to program ourselves into holograms or something to be relevant, so we're taking some time to strategize. If it were up to me, I would release our music on vinyl only to coerce people into hearing what purely organic recorded music sounds like. The only thing better is being in the room with the performer, so come out to The Yost and share some love with us.
